The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-06-01
THE SOUTH PENN DEAD.
DR.. De.id Hostetter and Ralph Bag
ley Sell their Westmoreiand
Coal Land.


Coal Land.
land holdings of DR. David Hosietfer and
Ralph Bagaley in Mt Pleasant and Pleasant
Unity townships, westmoreland county,
along the line of the proposed South Penn
sylvauia road toungnown parties for 81 ,eo0,-
900 rhc sellers DO not deny the report. but
they decline FOL Ihe present 10 give theraine
of the purchasers II is rumored that The
latter will form a gigantic syndicate in oppo-
sition to the Pittsburgh syndicate, but this is
doubtless purely conjectural The land ag-
gregatcs $500 acres. and the deal is the larg-
est of its kind since the purchase ofthe Stan
dard coke WORKS BY the II. c. Frick Coke
Company, a few years ago, for 81, $50 600.
The sale of this coal property is looked upon
as virtual Abandonment oithe South Penn
sylyania on the part of its Pittsburgh back
ers although both Hostetter and Bagaley de-
ny this. The latter, in a very interesting in
terview, explains that they bought this coal
land abought eight years ago TO prevent its
being gobbIed by the Pennsylvania railroad
interests and TO insure the South Pennsylva-
mia footing in the coke region Al this time
the South Pennsylvania charter belonged to
Hostetter, Bagaley and the Reading Railroad
Company in equal interests The elder
McCalmont was in vigorous health and in
control Of the Reading. He was heartily in
favor OF the new line to Pittsburgh, and
looked upon il as the means Of converting
the Reading system from comparatively a
local road into national highway, into a
position IT, compete with its rivals and OBJ
tain share Of the general business of the
country instead of being subject to the de-
pressions and fluctuations of the iron and
done, McCaImont lost his reason His
younger brother, who succeeded to his es-
tate, took an interest in the matter and soon
disposed of his Reading stock to various
purchasers, none of whom got enough To
form the basis of a controlling interest.
At this time Franklin b. Gowan proposed
an alliance with William H Vanderbilt
The public are familiar with subsequent
events in the history of the South Pcnnsyl-
vania, and il is not worth while To recount
ihem. The most recent move, however. was
To secure the passage of bill at Harrisburg
10 admit of the line being sold in sections
which bin was happily defeated by the
prompt action of the Pittsburgh stockholders
- | have been told, said Baealey, that the
true intent of this bill was TO max it legal
for the dominant party in South Pennsylva-
MIA TO put up that portion OF the line at auo-
ton that lies between Mt, Dallas aud New
Vile about 30 miles; have some one in the
interest of the Nanderbilts buy it in Gor
song, complete il at cost not exceeding
S2O00.000, probably much less, and then
lease it perpetually to the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company for $4,000 per annum,
which they offer for it, or ) per cent on
S6.0oO,000 Had this scheme succeeded. the
Vanderbilt family would have retired from
South Pennsylvania with handsome profit
the Pennsylvania Railroad would control
valuable and profitable addition to their pres
ent system and the South Pennsylvania pro-
ject would have been as eiiectually killed as
though the formerly attempted sell-out had
been accomplished.
Ii is useless to deny the fact that the pre-
sent outlook for The South Pennsylvania
line is not rosy. Indeed, it IS more unprom-
ising at this time than ever before in the his
tory Of the enterprise. We have now car
ried this large body OF coal land for the
benefit Of the South Pennsylvania project
long time Neither of Us are coke manu-
facturers, nor do we wish to increase our
cares 10y taking on the management of "a new
business 1t is for this reason that we have
decided to sell reserve 725 acres which |
purchased myself some time ago as protec-
ton to my iron ore and blast furnace inter
ests. In this connection, il is simple justice
To Dr. Hostetter tosay that he insisted that
the sale be made to parties who would oper-
ate independent of the coke syndicate. A
man does not get much credit for good acts
done in this world. but | believe that this
matter will be of more use 10 blast furnaces
and the iron interests generally dependent
upon the Connellsville region for fuel than
if missionary had Iaborcd with them for
many years. 4